Media bosses make hay in hard times

The tough times which most media companies experienced during 2009 had little impact on their senior executives’ remuneration.

Annual reports released by media companies for calendar 2009 and the 2010 financial year reveal few media executives suffered a decline in their remuneration.

Fairfax Media
, the publisher of The Australian Financial Review, was the latest media company to reveal its senior executives’ remuneration, releasing its 2009-10 annual report yesterday.

The total cost to Fairfax of Brian McCarthy, who was promoted from head of its Australian newspaper and printing division to chief executive in December 2008, rose from $2.07 million in 2008-09 to $3.16 million in 2009-10. The cost included the “fair value" of share options.

Mr McCarthy’s base salary increased 17.1 per cent to $1.4 million and he collected a $1.15 million bonus, up from $298,220 in 2008-09.

Brian Cassell, who was promoted from Fairfax group general manager, finance, to chief financial officer in early 2009 saw his remuneration jump 62 per cent to $1.33 million.

The total cost to Fairfax of Jack Matthews, head of its Australian digital division, rose 22.9 per cent to $1.06 million.

Some media companies have not yet released their 2009-10 annual reports, including Kerry Stokes’s Seven Group Holdings – which includes media investments and industrial equipment distributor WesTrac – Prime Media Group, Mitchell Communication Group and Macquarie Radio Network.

APN News & Media
chief executive Brendan Hopkins was one of the few media executives whose remuneration declined: it fell 4.8 per cent during calendar 2009 to $2.5 million.

Strong revenue and earnings growth pumped up the remuneration of senior executives at online advertising companies
Carsales.com
,
REA Group
and
Seek
during 2009-10.

Carsales.com chief executive Greg Roebuck saw his remuneration jump 53.6 per cent to $1.67 million. The remuneration of his counterpart at REA, Greg Ellis, more than doubled to $1.65 million.

Seek co-founders and joint chief executives Andrew and Paul Bassat received 47.2 per cent pay increases during the 2010 financial year, to $1.23 million each.

Australian media executives’ pay packages were dwarfed by the money collected for 2009-10 by senior executives at
News Corp
, which generates only a smart part of its revenue and earnings in Australia.

News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch took home $US22.7 million ($24.2 million), a 2.4 per cent increase on the $US22.2 million he received in 2008-09, but he did not get a bonus.

News Corp president and chief operating officer Chase Carey, who returned to the company in July 2009 after a seven-year absence, earned $US26 million in 2009-10, including a $US15 million bonus.

Mr Murdoch, Mr Carey, News Corp chief financial officer David DeVoe and James Murdoch, who runs the company’s European and Asian divisions, could collect up to $US89.5 million in cash and share bonuses under a new incentive scheme announced in early August.

The scheme ties the executives’ remuneration more closely to News Corp’s share price performance and will take effect on June 30, 2011.

The scheme gives Mr Murdoch the chance to earn an annual cash bonus of $US25 million.